Teacher suspended for using cell phone jammer in class

A Florida high school teacher has been suspended for doing something most educators only dream of trying: Using a cell phone jammer in his science classroom. While the device was meant to get students to focus, it instead caused a disruption of its own.

Dean Liptak wanted his Fivay High School students to become
smarter by paying attention to his science lesson instead of
their smartphones, so he bought a cell phone jamming device
online and brought it into his classroom. He used the equipment
over the course of three days, from March 31 to April 2.

“My intent for using the device was to keep students
academically focused on schoolwork,” Liptak wrote in a
letter to the school district. “It is counter productive
to stop instruction and lose academic focus when I have to tell a
student to put his or her cell phone away. It is also
unproductive to confiscate a cell phone, put it in the
school-approved box and keep it until the end of the
period.”

Liptak said he had done extensive research into the devices
before purchasing one.

“I found that they are being used in universities, schools,
churches and businesses, but I still did more research because I
didn’t want to do anything that was illegal,” he wrote.

A deputy on the local police force told him that there are no
state laws against cell phone jammers, as long as they are not
used maliciously, Liptak wrote. The deputy added that his
sergeant had confirmed that the only state law was against
selling the devices.

The problem, though, was not in state laws, but federal ones. The
Federal Communications Commission bans the use of cell phone
jammers without federal authorization.

“Federal law provides no exemption for use of a signal jammer
by school systems, police departments, or other state and local
authorities. Only federal agencies are eligible to apply for and
receive authorization,” the FCC said in a December enforcement
advisory.

The jammer affected a much larger area than Liptak was expecting,
although he said he tested the equipment both inside and outside
his classroom.

"Verizon had come to the school saying someone had a jamming
device, because the cell phone service was being interrupted in
the area," Pasco County School District Spokeswoman Linda
Cobbe told WTSP.

Initially the school administration believed that a student had
the device, the school district’s director of the Office for
Employee Relations, Betsy Kuhn, told Bay News 9.

“There was some issues with the signal all through the
school, people were complaining about it, and during that time he
wasn’t saying, 'oh it’s me, I’ve got the jammer,' it was not a
word,” Kuhn said.

The jammer had blocked communication to the cell tower located on
the Fivay High campus in Hudson, Florida.

"The consequences could have been dire, if he was jamming the
signal so 911 calls can [not] be made. It would affect an
emergency in the school," Cobbe said.

On Tuesday, the school district suspended Liptak for five days
without pay. The suspension was handed down by the school
district in the middle of the final week of classes, so it will
carry over into the next academic year, Bay News 9 reported.

Even before bringing the cell phone jammer to school, Liptak had
reputation among students.

“Everyone at school knows who he is,” student Braxton
Mora told Bay News 9. “He’s a little out there, he’s kind of
extreme.”

It’s not the first time Liptak has created controversy in his
classroom by expressing frustration with students. In January
2013, he received a letter from the Fivay administration
“addressing concerns about poor judgment” after he
created “an instructional worksheet containing inappropriate
content,” Pasco County School District Superintendent Kurt
Browning wrote in Litpak’s
letter of suspension.

According to WTSP, the worksheet contained questions including,
“A 50 kg student has a momentum of 500 kg m/s as the teacher
launches him toward the wall, what is the velocity of the student
heading toward the wall?”

Litpak is a former professional wrestler, making up one half of
the wrestling duo ‘The Power Company Twins’ with his brother.
That information did not placate parents’ unhappiness with the
question.

"I would wonder why on earth they would put that kind of
wording," William Brown, whose son attended the school, said
at the time. "It has violent overtones and it's
inappropriate."

Browning warned Liptak that the letter of suspension serves as a
“last chance agreement for your employment with the
District,” the superintendent wrote. “If similar
behavior regarding poor judgment happens again, after
investigation, a recommendation for the termination of your
employment will be sent to the [School] Board.”

Liptak countered that “poor judgment” is a “very
subjective statement,” but admitted he wished he had gone to
the school administration before employing the cell phone jammer.